One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 – Everything We Know
Back in July, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced a fourth entry in the One Piece Pirate Warriors series, and confirmed the title would release in 2020. The series, which is developed as a collaboration between Bandai Namco Entertainment, and Koei Tecmo Games’ Omega Force studio (developers of the famed Dynasty Warriors series) has been a hit for the publisher, with the first 3 titles of the series shipping over 4 million units.
Producers
From Koei Tecmo’s side, its Mr. Akihiro Suzuki (below), who is the Executive Officer for the Omega Force brand.
The Series has been produced by Bandai Namco’s Mr. Koji Nakajima (below), who is the publisher’s choice to lead development on the entire One Piece IP.
Dramatic Log mode
With the last entry going up to Dressrosa (which was in serialisation at the time, and hadn’t finished) they had to have a game exclusive ending to the Arc. This time, however, the game is going up to at least the Whole Cake Island arc. Big Mom, who is featured along with Monkey D. Luffy’s Fourth Gear (AKA Snake Man) in the reveal trailer, was the main antagonist.
The Story will start from the very beginning again (East Blue), as they seem to use the Pirate Warriors series as a way to cover the canon story, and the content is impressive. The third entry covered a significant amount of the story, so I would assume the only gaps left to fill would be Little Garden, and Foxy. The latest gameplay trailer for Whole Cake Island was shown at Gamescom.
Playable Characters
A theme with the Warriors titles are that the rosters get bigger with each release. Last time around, the playable roster was impressive – with more than 30 characters, so you can expect at least 40, maybe more. This week, Carrot was confirmed as a new playable character – she made her debut during the Zou Arc, and is a member of the Warrior Beast tribe. Her Sulong form (a transformation she goes through when staring at a full moon) is also shown. Zoro “The Indomitable Swordsman“has also been confirmed as a new playable character and he was the first member to join the Straw Hat Crew.
A new gameplay was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show this week, that highlights the two newly announced characters, Carrot and Zoro.
Gameplay
The gameplay for this series is the same as the Dynasty Warriors franchise – you must defeat hordes of enemies, each attack you make, will see part of your meter fill. When this meter is completely full, you’ll be able to unleash a special attack – for instance, if you’re playing as Luffy, you can use his Elephant Gun, or Jet Hawk attack, which causes a lot of damage to many enemies on screen. This time, there will be damage to the battlefield, such as buildings etc, and dust flying through the air, to give a more exhilarating experience. I think because it’s the 20th anniversary of the One Piece anime, they decided to make a landmark title for the franchise, and the Pirate Warriors series is by far the most popular.
Closing thoughts
As a big fan of One Piece, and the Pirate Warriors franchise, I’m really excited to see what BNE & KT have in store for us.
With the Tokyo Game Show coming up, we are to be shown another trailer, maybe to include Kaido this time. You can see his club on the bottom left hand corner of the logo. There will also be a LIVE stream taking place on the main stage, and will be available via YouTube and Periscope. It is set for this Sunday, the 15th at 05.15am – 06.15am for UK fans.
That’s all the news we have for now, but check back with us for more as and when it comes available. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is set to release for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch sometime in 2020.